Child Maltreatment in Youth-Serving Organizations: A Scoping Review

Child abuse in youth-serving organizations (YSO) is an increasingly referenced topic, but it currently has a limited epidemiological foundation. A body of research is beginning to shed light on this abuse, and this scoping review was aimed at better documenting what is currently known. The review specifically examined published and gray literature on child abuse in YSOs across several subcategories: daycare, detention/juvenile justice, healthcare, recreation, religion, residential, schools, and sports. A total of 112 academic papers and 28 gray literature resources were reviewed for the first 7 sectors, and a 2023 review was summarized for the daycare sector. Findings highlight that the definitions and measurement of maltreatment in YSOs vary, and significant research gaps remain. Some sectors of YSOs have better coverage than others: for example, more on residential settings and detention/juvenile justice, while less on healthcare settings. Recommendations include a need for: (a) more multi-sector YSO epidemiological studies measuring various forms of abuse; (b) modifications to general child maltreatment surveys to specify YSO settings and YSO staff and volunteers; (c) modifications to existing police or child protection data systems to allow for classification of abuse in YSO settings or by YSO staff and volunteers.